UP Achieved Rs 20,000 Crore Investment Target, To Develop As Data Centre Hub: Yogi Adityanath

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday said the state has achieved an investment target of Rs 20,000 crore in the first year of implementing its data centre policy and assured investors that their investment will remain safe in the state.

Speaking at the launch function of Hiranandani Group's data centre facility, Yogi Adityanath said Uttar Pradesh is going to become a hub of data centres.

He said corporates like Adani, WebWerks, Sify, STT and NTT have also submitted their investment proposals which are under consideration.

"UP is going to become a hub of data centres. State government's data centre policy has achieved a total targeted investment of Rs 20,000 crore in its first year of commencement. We have received investment proposals from Indian and global data centre investors of over 600 megawatt data centres," the chief minister said.

Data centre capacity is measured in terms of power it consumes.

Yogi Adityanath further said when Uttar Pradesh came up with its policy, the total data centre capacity in the entire country was 400 MW.

He said Gautam Buddh Nagar has emerged as a centre for the IT industry and both domestic as well as foreign investors continue to invest in the district.

"Gautam Buddh Nagar was cursed for UP chief ministers. It was believed that no UP chief minister should visit Gautam Buddh Nagar. When I started visiting this place five years ago, there were several questions raised. My friends in opposition also said that your chair is in danger. I told them the chair doesn't go with anyone. If it has to go tomorrow, it should go today but I cannot betray people," he said.

He said people again elected a 'double engine' government (same political party in Centre and state) and Uttar Pradesh has emerged as one of the leading investment destinations. At present, it is the top state for mobile phone and components manufacturing.

The pledge taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India a USD 5 trillion economy is possible, he added.

Yogi Adityanath said his government is committed to a zero tolerance policy against crime and corruption to make investments made by all investors safe in the state.

"At some point of time there used to be numerous mafia groups. Investors used to run away. Now there are no mafia groups and there can be no crime syndicate in the state.

"I want to assure all investor partners that investment done by them in the state will be completely secure and the state government will help them in growing it further," the chief minister said.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the Uttar Pradesh government is taking the lead in the field of manufacturing, IT and digitisation.

He said 92 per cent of mobile phones used in the country in 2014 were imported, but now in 2022, 97 per cent of the handsets used domestically are made in India. The country is also exporting phones worth Rs 70,000 crore.

Hiranandani Group firm Yotta Infrastructure on the occasion announced that it will invest Rs 39,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh over the next 5-7 years.

The company has committed investment under a memorandum of agreement signed with the Uttar Pradesh government and the funds will go towards constructing the data centre campus, procuring IT equipment and other hardware, Yotta Infrastructure Co-Founder and Chairman Darshan Hiranandani told reporters at the launch event of Yotta D1 data centre.

"We will see investment of Rs 39,000 crore in and around this campus. The first building has already been completed... We have started work for two other buildings which will be completed in 12-15 months. We will put up one building every 18 months," Mr Hiranandani said.

He said the entire capacity of D1 has been sold out to customers and now there is demand for more capacity. The company has committed to make six data centre buildings in its campus at Greater Noida.

"Each data centre will cost Rs 6,500 crore. The committed investment is for 6 data centres. We have already started work for D2 and DE which shall be ready in 12-15 months," Yotta Infrastructure Co-Founder and CEO Sunil Gupta said.

The company has set up a hyperscale data centre, Yotta D1, at its Greater Noida Data Center Park with an investment of around Rs 1,500 crore.

In addition, the foundation stone laying ceremony of the next two data centre buildings -- Yotta D2 and D3 -- was also performed during the launch event.

The company will make an additional investment of Rs 5,000 crore for IT equipment in Yotta D1.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)